Apple said it had removed Meta’s WhatsApp messaging app and its Threads social media app from the App Store in China to comply with orders from Chinese authorities.
The apps were removed from stores on Friday after Chinese officials cited unspecified national security concerns.
Their removal comes as tensions rise between China and the United States over trade, technology and national security.
The United States has threatened to ban TikTok due to national security concerns. But while TikTok, owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, is used by millions of people in the United States, apps like WhatsApp and Threads are less commonly used in China.
Instead, messaging app WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, dominates.
Other Meta apps, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, are still available for download, although use of these foreign apps is blocked in China due to the country’s “Great Firewall” filter network that restricts use of foreign websites such as Google and Facebook.
“Due to national security concerns, the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the Chinese store,” Apple said in a statement.
“We are obligated to comply with the laws of the countries in which we do business, even if we disagree,” Apple said.
A spokesperson for Meta said it “requests comment from Apple.”
Apple, once the world’s largest smartphone maker, recently lost the top spot to South Korean rival Samsung Electronics. The U.S. company has encountered headwinds in China, one of its three largest markets, where sales have slumped after employees at government agencies and state-owned enterprises were ordered not to bring Apple devices to work.
Apple has been diversifying its manufacturing base outside of China.
Its CEO Tim Cook has been touring Southeast Asia this week, visiting Hanoi and Jakarta before wrapping up a trip to Singapore. On Friday, he met with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and the two “discussed the partnership between Singapore and Apple and Apple’s continued commitment to doing business in Singapore.”
Apple has committed to investing more than $250 million to expand its campus in the city-state.
Earlier this week, Cook met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Trinh in Hanoi and pledged to increase spending on Vietnamese suppliers.
He also met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Cook later told reporters that they discussed Widodo’s desire to boost Indonesian manufacturing and said Apple would “consider” it.
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